PRINCESS ANNE, Maryland — The University of Maryland Eastern Shore is off to a great 3-0 start in Mid-Eastern Conference play and currently stand of No. 2 in the MEAC standings. Mondays matchup with visiting North Carolina A&T State (5-10, 2-0) brings the No. 3 team to the William P. Hytche Athletic center for a 5:30 p.m. showdown.

The Hawks (7-9, 3-0 MEAC) pushed their win streak to four games on Saturday (Jan. 12) with a 59-49 home victory against N.C. Central. Again the Hawks were plagued by a slow start, but still found a way to win as seniors Ra'Jean Martin (Jacksonville, Florida), Ciani Byrom (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) and Dominique Walker (Bel Air, Maryland) led the way.

"Sunday's practice is where we address playing better to start," Hawks coach Fred Batchelor said after the win. "We have to focus on coming in here regardless of what the weather is like and prepare to win. I think that is going to help us in regard to playing better. I think they know we need to play better."

Over the last four games, the Hawks have faces different challenges, but often at one tough quarter of shooting gets compounded by mistakes on defense and in not taking care of the ball. Batchelor has appreciated his team's resilience and ability to fight back, but would love to not see them put themselves in that position.

"The thing about it is (Saturday) we were missing shots and I thought we let that affect us on the other end of the floor," Batchelor said. "I think we need to be a little bit more tougher minded in that when we aren't making shots we need to be that much tougher on the defensive end."

The Aggies won both matchups last season, but barely escaped The Shore win a 66-64 win at Hytche. A 20-point victory against Delaware State on Saturday shows A&T on its game. And that game has been rebounding. They outrebounded the Hornets 51-32 and the Hawks can't afford to let that happen despite the Aggies' size.

A&T State sports seven players bigger than 6-foot tall and may have the biggest lineup in the conference. Five players: Charnise Tyler (6.1), Rayven Peeples (5.9), Le'on Hill (5.9), Alexus Lessears (5.9) and C'Coriea Foy (4.4) grab more than four rebounds a game.

"We are always trying to beat the other teams in rebounding," Walker — who had her first career double-double last time out — said. "Rebounding wins the game and if we win there, we have a lot more chances of getting shots up and taking their shots away if they can't get more rebounds."

Foy is second on the Aggies in scoring (11.3 points per game) and assists (2.6 pg), while leading in minutes (30.7). Cinia McCray leads the team in scoring with 11.9 per game.

Batcheler knows much will fall on the shoulders of his seniors against the Aggies, but — like each of the last four games — someone else will need to step up in order for the Hawks to come away with a win. If that happens against the No. 2 team, he'll be ready to talk about a hot start to conference play.

His leaders are just looking to continue what they have started.

"We are starting of conference play pretty well and we want to finish that way," Martin said.